East Asia hits high-grade copper at Khok Adar (September 15, 2005)

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – Drilling by East Asia Minerals (EAS-V) on its 1,000-sq-km Khok Adar project in western Mongolian has tapped significant high-grade oxide copper mineralization.

Hole 5, a vertical RC hole, intersected 56 metres (from surface) averaging 7.4% copper and 34 grams silver per tonne, including a 7 metre interval grading 17.4% copper and 47 grams silver in the EC-1 zone.

Core hole 6 cut 81 metres, essentially from surface, of 4.6% copper and 22 grams silver, including a 27-metre interval with native copper sections grading 8.5% copper and 37 grams silver, and 7 metres of almost 14% copper with 63 grams silver. The hole was drilled at a north-northeast azimuth with a dip of -46 degrees to a depth of 145 metres on the EC-1 zone.

Four other holes also successfully tested both oxide and mixed oxide-sulphide, as well as secondary sulphide mineralization on EC-1, Zone 1 and a new oxide zone located 700 metres east-southeast of EC-1.

The EC-1 (exotic copper) zone occurs within brecciated quartzites west of a north-northeasterly-trending structure and contains abundant oxide copper minerals (including azurite, malachite, cuprite, tenorite, chrysocolla and native copper) that fill fractures and pore spaces. Khok Adar is a structurally controlled copper-silver-zinc mineralized system within Cambrian-aged metasediments that has undergone numerous, later phase epithermal alteration events.

Past Russian exploration work on the eastern portion of the project defined Zone 1, an area of chalcocite enrichment identified in a mixed sulphide-oxide zone.

Excited by its results, the company believes a significant copper source may exist in the project area, as known sulphide zones are not of sufficient size to account for the significant enrichment blanket. East Asia is one year into its three-year option deal to earn 75% in Khok Adar and must spend US$1 million on exploration over the course of the agreement.

Boosting its Mongolian property portfolio

At the strongly attended Discover Mongolia 2005 International Mining Investors Forum in Ulaanbaatar, the company also announced the acquisition of a number of additional Mongolian mineral projects.

East Asia acquired an almost 2,000-hectare low-sulphidation epithermal gold project in Dundgovi Aimag of south-central Mongolia. The Deren prospect is situated in the large Undershil epithermal belt that extends from central Mongolia northeasterly into Siberia. Past Russian work discovered gold and banded epithermal quartz veining along with kaolin clay alteration over an area of 6.5 km in length by up to 200 metres wide.

East Asia president Lyndon Bradish outlined exploration plans, “while at first glance Deren appears as an early stage prospect, it is close to being drill ready.” Building on existent Soviet-era exploration data, the company plans to drill before the end of the year, following a surface geochemistry program to delineate metal zonations.

The company also recently grabbed four uranium projects in east-central Mongolia. The Elgenii, Enger, Ikh Khat and Shavar properties all have known stratiform uranium mineralization hosted in sandstones and siltstones. The projects show some similarities to roll-front type deposits, indicating potential amenability to in-situ leaching extraction should an economic deposit be delineated.

Once again, all the projects had undergone past Russian exploration in the 1970s and 1980s. Work included airborne radiometric surveys, ground geophysics, surface sampling and trenching, as well as significant drilling on the Enger project.

Investors have become enamoured with the growing Mongolian explorer, driving up its share price by 31% to the $1.23-level following announcement of the high-grade copper assays.